Don preformed a few language evaluations on Ben also. He was quite impressed.
Some great things noted were:
- Consistently responding to familiar and unfamiliar environmental sounds. Such as: the dog barking, a knock at the door, or a beep from a machine.
- Responding to his name. (He signed his name each time we said Ben.)
- Differentiate between Mom and Dad's voices and turn to the person talking.
- Using words/sounds to communicate.
- Responding to words when not looking at the speaker. (Don asked if Ben recognized words. I said, "Sure he knows daddy......". From across the room Ben looked up from his toy and signed and said dada.)
- Have a change in behavior when the sound to his implant spontaneously goes off. (Ben takes his his ear off and hands it to one of us while whining if his battery goes dead or the magnet slips off.)
According to Don, Ben's language is developing at a quick pace. He is using all the sounds that would be expected from a typical hearing 14 month old.
Ben put on quite the show, playing, talking and signing. His favorite word for today was hep. He asked for hep opening a toy, sitting in a chair, and opening his snacks.
He also looked super smart when he wanted a snack from Don and said "mmm uh" while signing more please. Our little prodigy!
Mommy and Daddy couldn't be prouder!
